Students don’t trust teachers. Teachers don’t trust students. Teachers don’t trust leadership. And none of us completely trusts the machine sitting in the middle.
AI has become the trust-breaker in education.
Yes, trust is at the heart of it all, and it will become more challenging to maintain especially once more detailed policies start rolling out. What I mean is--you can't use AI for this, but I can use it for that. Student feedback/report card comments vs. Admin emails/feedback. Where's the line?
Re "I’m going to suggest this year that whenever they use it, all teachers, staff, and administrators indicate somewhere in their work that they’ve used AI to produce it, from syllabi to assignments, slides, and staff/parent emails."
Attributing the work of others, referencing other works used, etc. are all time-tested practices in academia. Claiming you wrote something written by someone ... or something ... else is plagiarism. There should be no opposition to your proposal and if there is, the opponents need to be staked out in the hot sun for a day until the demons possessing them exit.
Thanks for writing such a thoughtful and honest piece, Matt, and putting your finger on what is being lost in so many places and spaces in this moment.
thanks for reading! Articles like this tend to be my therapy, where the voices in my head get their chance to contribute, and I hope the one full of gentle wisdom comes out in the end. and is then at the front of the line when the stuff is brought up during the school year.
Of course, pretty much on board with everything here—most especially the centering of the word "trust" in all of this. I don't think those outside the classroom understand how critical and fragile it already is—and to further erode it is catastrophic in this moment.
This piece also gets to why I still don't use AI in my own work as a teacher.
That isn't a critique of those that do, as I believe doing so transparently and thoughtfully can without question make a positive impact! I just feel like threading the needle in this moment between what's okay and what's not okay has far more downsides for me in my own space—and I fully intend to continue reevaluating this going forward, too, as I don't know how sustainable that stance is.
Yes, trust is at the heart of it all, and it will become more challenging to maintain especially once more detailed policies start rolling out. What I mean is--you can't use AI for this, but I can use it for that. Student feedback/report card comments vs. Admin emails/feedback. Where's the line?
Re "I’m going to suggest this year that whenever they use it, all teachers, staff, and administrators indicate somewhere in their work that they’ve used AI to produce it, from syllabi to assignments, slides, and staff/parent emails."
Attributing the work of others, referencing other works used, etc. are all time-tested practices in academia. Claiming you wrote something written by someone ... or something ... else is plagiarism. There should be no opposition to your proposal and if there is, the opponents need to be staked out in the hot sun for a day until the demons possessing them exit.
Thanks for writing such a thoughtful and honest piece, Matt, and putting your finger on what is being lost in so many places and spaces in this moment.
thanks for reading! Articles like this tend to be my therapy, where the voices in my head get their chance to contribute, and I hope the one full of gentle wisdom comes out in the end. and is then at the front of the line when the stuff is brought up during the school year.
Of course, pretty much on board with everything here—most especially the centering of the word "trust" in all of this. I don't think those outside the classroom understand how critical and fragile it already is—and to further erode it is catastrophic in this moment.
This piece also gets to why I still don't use AI in my own work as a teacher.
That isn't a critique of those that do, as I believe doing so transparently and thoughtfully can without question make a positive impact! I just feel like threading the needle in this moment between what's okay and what's not okay has far more downsides for me in my own space—and I fully intend to continue reevaluating this going forward, too, as I don't know how sustainable that stance is.